Most appeared to be in their twenties. Some wore bandanas or scarves covering the lower half of their faces. A few smacked the glass windows of the establishment’s French doors. A couple mugged for the crowd gathered inside, awaiting the mayor who was expected to give actor James Cromwell the Mayor’s Career Achievement Award.

Before Mayor Hancock arrived, both Cromwell and actor Alan Cumming went outside to talk with the protesters. Cumming, the recipient of this year’s Excellence in Acting honor, returned to the restaurant then went outside again. “I told them the Mayor wasn’t here,” he said later. That news dispersed the crowd. Shortly after, there were altercations between police and protesters on 14th between Larimer and Lawrence streets. One young man, who was thrown to the ground by officers and handcuffed, complained that his knuckle was broken and shouted his name repeatedly.

It was a brief flash of real-life drama for an 11-day festival that has mostly delivered the onscreen variety. Later, at the closing night screening of “The Artist,” Denver Film Society artistic director Brit Withey announced the winners of the festival’s awards.

“Volcano” set in Iceland from first-time feature director Runar Runnarson won the Krzysztof Keislowski Award for Best Feature. Sophia Takal beat out an impressive slate of films from other young American filmmakers for the New Director award for “Green.” A film about a Donald Trump’s attempts to build a golf resort in Scotland against the wishes of the locals called “You’ve Been Trumped” took home this year’s Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary. The festival, which has full day of programming Sunday, continues to tabulate festgoer ballots for its audience awards, which will be announced Monday morning.

Lisa Kennedy has been The Denver Post film critic for quite a spell. The job returned her to the town she grew up in after 20 years of living elsewhere: mostly in New York City. During the time she's been back, she was voted into the National Society of Film Critics, a first for a Colorado reviewer. When she began Diary of a Mad Moviegoer, she wasn't just cribbing from Tyler Perry. In fact, she seldom goes all Madea on movies, thinking the gig is more like a conversation than a competition about who's right about which flick.